Ubuntu
grub2 package

boot difficulty after upgrade to 11.10

Asked by Kim

Installed 11.04 - no problem.

Screen prompt to upgrade to 11,10 was accepted but the end result:-
1) Booted to blank pruple screen.
2) Used reset button on PC Chassis which resulted in screen showing several options.
3) Chose option to "boot to previous version"
4) booted to 11.10 but asked for password despited this option was not required during installation.

How do I get 11,10 to boot normally ?

Thanks

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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#1

(1) It seems that there was a problem with the upgrade. This happens rarely but when it does it's nasty. I don't recommend on line upgrades: they take too long, and if they do fail it leaves you without a LiveCD for the version you are upgrading to. I _do_ recommend that you download the ISO and burn the LiveCD (or LiveUSB) as the Ubiquity installer on the CD now has the option to upgrade instead of re-installing. You also have the LiveCD to reinstall from or boot off to fix problems.

(2) _Never_ use the reset button except as an absolution last resort. (Was the hard drive light flashing at the time? I'd expect the first boot after an upgrade to take some little time - Certainly longer than normal. Instead of the reset button the safe option to reboot without corrupting the filesystem is to use the SysRq key codes.

Press and hold <Alt> and <SysRq> (which is also the PrintScreen key on desktop keyboards) and very slowly (a few seconds in between) tap the following keys in this order:
r e i s u b

No matter what happens, press the entire sequence, in this order. If an Ubuntu system does not safely reboot with this no matter what, then it was truly as dead as a door knocker and you should get someone to check out your hardware. You can remember the sequence with the memory aid: "R-eboot E-ven I-f S-ystem U-tterly B-roken".

(3) I've never seen that. Was it simply asking if you wanted to load the previous kernel perhaps?

(4) It wasn't an install, it was an upgrade. You would have needed to type your password in to get update manager to start the upgrade for you.

Now to fix. when you boot to a purple screen, if you press <ctrl><alt><F2> do you get a console screen? If the answer is no, from the grub screen select recovery mode and then select Continue boot with networking. (if you don't get the grub screen, press and hold the shift key while the machine is booting)

Log in to the console and type the following. Stop and report the errors here if things fail:

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot

If all is well, the machine should boot up to the desktop, or at least lightdm which is the new login window manager.

If it doesn't work then you could try getting to the console again and restarting the release upgrade again upgrade:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Check the release level the machine is at with:

uname -a; lsb_release -a

and post the results here.

Chris

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